Lone Tree

Dan your shot is well taken, composition and exposure wise, but I think that Mother Nature is letting you down. The tree is just not as elegant as I suspect you think it is. As such it fails to grab the viewers attention. Maybe the song " just another brick in the wall " might cover what I'm saying.

Cheers
Vincent

I should have paid this some attention a while back... I really think that cropping most of the foreground out would help. Also, if you used a paper that responds to toning with any degree, a warmtone paper could help you emphasize the beautiful fog and create some really glowing highlights with a sulfide toner (just bleach with care for a minute or less then dunk in sepia or thiocarbamide or thiourea until it looks right), remove and then if you want to give the lower values some extra density and color with selenium.
I think that treatment would really emphasize the fog nicely and make the tree stand out against it much better.
- Thomas

Nicely done, I agree that cropping the foreground a bit would bring more attention to the lone tree. This has a pleasant, eerie, wispy, dreamy feel to it. I don't see 'elegance' as having anything to do with it as an earlier comment suggests.